Wire pay-off mechanism



March 9, 1948. M. F. WILLIAMS ETAL 2,437,530

WIRE PAY-OFF MECHANISM Filed July 17, 1945 5 Sheets-Sheet l IN V EN TOR. 5: MRR/s F. VV/LL/AMs SEYMOUEB. GA LLT.

ATTORNEYS.

March 9, 1948. M. F. WILLIAMS ETAL WIRE PAY-OFF MECHANISM Filed July 17, 1945 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS MORRIS F VV/LL/A/ws. SEYMOUR 5.641.517

A TTORNEIJ.

March 9, 1948. M. F. WILLIAMS ETAL WIRE PAY-OFF MECHANISM Filed July 17, 1945 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTORS VV/LL/A MS ow? B.GA L L7:

Aloe/e15 F. Say/v1 A T TOR/VEYS.

Patented Mar. 9, 1948 I v WIRE PAY-OFF MECHANISM Morris F. Williams and Seymour B. Gallt, Syracuse, N. Y., assign or: to Crucible Steel Company of America, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New Jersey Application July 17, 1945, Serial No. 605,568

This invention pertains to a pay-of! mechanism for rapidly feeding wire or other stranded material, from a randomly coiled reel thereof, through a guide or aperture, such for example as a wire-drawing die or the like, to a pulling device, such as a motor driven wind-up reel.

In accordance with the invention, the coil to be unwound is carried by a normally stationary supporting frame or pay-ofi mechanism, both the frame and the coil proper remaining stationary during normal operation, and the wire or the like passing 05 the coil in a, direction generally endwise with respect to the coil, but with certain special modifications in the path of movement.

More specifically, the pay-oft mechanism of the invention comprises a substantially bell-shaped, coil-supporting frame, this frame being mounted with its axis horizontal and being removably supported at its smaller end by a vertical standard. The coil to be unwound is placed on the frame by first removing the latter from the vertical standard, and thereupon thrusting the small end of the frame through the coil, whereupon the frame is again mounted on the standard.

In accordance with the simplest modification of the invention, and one which illustrates the basic principles of operation involved, the outer free end of the coil is now fed over the larger or unsupported end of the bell-shaped frame to a pulling device, such as a motor-driven reel, through a relatively small diameter, circular guide member rigidly mounted along the axis of the bell frame, a considerable distance therefrom and adjacent the pulling device. The large diameter end of the bell frame thus constitutes the delivery end, and is of a diameter considerably greater than that of the coil to be unwound.

If now the pulling device is started up at a high rate of speed, it will start pulling the wire rapidly over the delivery or large diameter end of the bell frame. The wire in passing from the coil to the pulling device will thus be deflected radially outward by the flared-out delivery end of the bell frame, while at the same time whipping around the delivery end thereof in process of unwinding from the coil, the latter remaining stationary. This combined radial deflection and whipping action will set up strong centrifugal forces in the wire being payed out, causing it to swing. as it unwinds from the coil, in a. large rotating loop about the delivery end of the bell frame, and such that the wire comes off the coil in a substantially radial direction without touching the delivery end of the bell frame, except occasionally. By the very nature of the action thus described, kinking or snarling of the wire is eliminated in normal operation, the whipping action and substantially radial pay-ofl from the coil serving, in general, to overcome any such tendencies. The small diameter guide ring through which the wire is fed adjacent the pulling device, eliminates the whipping action of the wire at this point, thus permitting the same to be coiled without disturbance on the motor-driven wind-up drum, after passage, for example, through an interposed wiredrawing die or the like.

By interposing a second and relatively large diameter stationary guide ring about midway between the bell frame and the above-mentioned small diameter guide ring. a nodal point can thus be created in the rotating loop of payed-out wire, whereby the loop assumes an s-shaped contour, the centrifugal forces of one-half of which substantially balance those of the other half, thus removing most of the radial stress from the small diameter guide ring adjacent the pulling device. This modification greatly facilitates the ease of feeding the wire througha drawing die or the like, and thus constitutes the perferred form of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the abovementioned preferred form of the pay-oft mechanism constructed to operate in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 2 is a view in side elevation of the Fig. 1 mechanism, and showing in addition, partly in section, certain mechanism employed in conjunction therewith for automatically stopping the feed. in the event the wire becomes knotted,

' snarled or kinked.

Fig. 3 is a further view substantially in side elevation of the Fig. 1 mechanism, but showing, in addition, the circuit diagram of the electrical control equipment employed for starting and stopping the feed of the mechanism, both manually and automatically, the latter in the event of snarling or kinking of the wire, etc.

Fig. 4 is a view in side elevation of the simplifled form of the pay-oil mechanism above referred to.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, the pay-oft mechanism in accordance with the preferred form of the invention comprises a substantially bellshaped supporting frame I for the coil 2 to be unwound, this frame comprising a series of coilsupporting wires, such as 3, extending in a generally axial direction and secured at the small end of the bell frame to'a mounting disc 4, and at the diameter guide ring l3.

larger or delivery end to a ring of substantially larger diameter than the coil 2 to be unwound. Rigidly secured to the disc 4 is a truncated mounting lug 6 which fits into and frictionaily engages a corresponding recess, as indicated at I, in a supporting post 8, mounted on a. pedestal 8, this supporting assembly or standard being generally designated by the numeral N.

For mounting the coil 2 upon the bell frame I, the frame is lifted vertically to disengage the lug B from the recess 1, whereupon the coil is placed over the small end 4 of the bell frame, and the frame returned to the position shown by reseating the lug 6 in the recess I. With this mounting assembly, it will be seen that the bell frame is positioned with its axis horizontal, and with its larger end 5 comprising the delivery end,

For purposes of unwinding the coil, the outer free end ll thereof, is manually extended over the delivery end ring 5 of the bell frame I, thence through a guide ring l2, of appreciably larger diameter than ring 5, thence through a second guide ring l3 of quite small diameter, as shown, thence, in the particular modification shown in the drawing, through a wire-drawing die block,

' indicated generally at l4, and thence finally onto a motor-driven wind-up reel IS. The guide rings l2 and I3 are mounted on supporting bases, such as l6, l1, and are arranged in substantially axial alignment with the axis of the bell frame I, as shown, the planes of the rings being substantially perpendicular to this axis. drawing die I4 is mounted on the motor housing 18 in substantially axial alignment with the bell frame.

If now the motor, which drives the wind-up reel l5 (shown within the dashed rectangle l9, Fig. 3, and referred tohereinafter) is started up at a relatively high rate of speed, the payed-out portion ll of the wire from coil 2 will be pulled rapidly over ring 5 of the bell frame, thence through guide rings 12, i3 and through a drawing die 14 onto the wind-up reel l5. The initial tendency will be to .pull the wire in a substantially axial direction, but, as the wire comes off the reel 2, it will be deflected radially outward by the larger diameter of the guide ring 5, and at the same time will be forced to unwind or uncoil from reel 2, as shown by the convolutions Ila. This combined radial outward deflection of the wire portion [la and its concurrent uncoiling, will set up strong centrifugal forces which will throw the wire clear of ring 5 in a relatively large, revolving loop, such as is indicated at I lb.

Perhaps at this point it will be well to refer momentarily to the modification of Fig. 4, wherein the central guide ring I2 is omitted, in which case the wire portion leaving the reel 2 is thrown outward in a single large rotating loop, such as lib, extending from the bell frame I to the small .As this loop whips around, it causes the payed-out wire portion Ha adjacent to coil 2 to leave the coil in an almost radial direction, the centrifugal forces in the payed-out portions Ila, lib, being sufficient to whip this portion away from the coil with such force as to eliminate such tendencies to knotting or snarling of the wire as would be ordinarily encountered. y

In the modification of Fig. 4, the single loop llb, whipping about in space, sets up considerable radial stresses in the small guide ring l3, which are transmitted to some extent to the drawing die 14. To overcome this tendency, and

Likewise, the

diameter guide ring I2 is interposed about midway between the bell frame delivery ring I and the small guide ring l3. The single loop llb, Fig. 4, which is set up when the guide ring I2 is absent, in striking against this guide ring when present, causes the loop to assume an 8-shaped contour, comprising portions Ilb, lie of Fig. 1, having a nodal point, such as lid, approximately within the plane of the ring i2. With thismodi fication, therefore, the centrifugal forces set up in portion lib, Fig. 1, of the loop are substantially counterbalanced by those set up in the .portion He, in so far as concerns the small guide ring l3 and the drawing die i4, so that the wire is fed into the drawing die with very little lateral deflection. The dashed line 20 shows another path in space assumed by thewire in its traverse from coil 2 to guide ring 13, it being understood that various intermediate paths are simlarly traversed as coil 2 is unwound,

Preferably, the pay-off mechanism is arranged to throw the wire-pulling mechanism out of operation in the event the wire becomes so snarled that breakage would result unless 'the pulling mechanism were stopped. '1'his,as well as the usually manually controlled starting and stopping of the pulling mechanism, is accomplished by means of the arrangement shown more particularly in Fig. 3 of the drawings, wherein the equipment shown diagrammatically within the rectangle I9, is assembled within the housing IS on which the drawing die I4, and wind-up reel I5, are mounted. The motor for driving the wind-up reel i5 is shown generally at 20, and comprises a commutator type rotor 2|, with associated series and shunt stator fields 22, 23, adapted to be energized from direct current power bus bars 24, 25. For'manually starting and stopping the motor, pushbuttons 26 and 2'l-are provided, these buttons being mounted on the motor. housing l8, as indicated at 28. Also, for manually stopping the motor, a foot-actuated emergency switch 29 is provided adjacent the pedestal '9 of the bell-frame support l0, Figs. 1 and 3. In addition, there is provided at this point, an automatic safety switch 30, which is operated as explained below, when the wire becomes unduly kinked or snarled.

The action of these various switches in controlling the operations of the wire-pulling and pay-off mechanism will now be explained, as follows: The contacts of the start switch are normally open while those of the remaining switches are normally closed as shown in Fig. 3. Also, when motor 20-is not running, its armature circuit, between the power supply bus bars 24, 25, is open at the lower left-hand contact of a switch 3 i, actuated by a solenoid 32.

Assuming the circuit to be arranged as shown in Fig. 3, with the armature circuit of motor 20 open at the lower contact of switch 3| as aforesaid, the start button 26 is manually depressed momentarily. This closes a circuit from the positive bus bar 24, over a conductor 33, through the contacts of the start switch 25, thence over conductors 34 through the winding of solenoid 32, and thence to the negative power bus bar 25 over conductor 35. The solenoid 32 thereupon operates to close the lower contact of switch 3|, thereby connecting the armature circuit 2| of motor 20 through to the power bus bars 24, 25. Also, solenoid 32, upon so operating, closes a holding circuit for itself, traced from the positive bus bar 24, through the solenoid auxiliary referring now again to Fig. 1, the relatively large switch contacts 36, thence through the normally closed contacts of the stop switch 30, thence over .conductors 31 through the normally closed contacts in series of the foot switch 29 and the automatic safety switch 30, thence over conductors 34 through the winding of solenoid 32, re-' turning thence to the negative bus bar 25 over conductor 35.

Due to operation of this holding circuit, the

motor 20, once started up by momentary depres sion of the start switch 26 as aforesaid, will con tinue to run until either the stop switch 21, the foot switch 29 or the automatic safety switch 30 is operated. Since, however, the normally closed contacts of all three of these switches 21, 29 and 30 are connected in series in the holding circuit for solenoid 32 above traced, the actuation of any one of these switches will open this holding circuit, thereby releasing solenoid 32, the release of which will in turn open the armature cir cuit for the motor at switch contacts3l, and will also open the holding circuit for solenoid 32 at switch contacts 36, until the start switch 26 is again depressed.

The stop switch21 and the foot,switch 29 are,

of course, manually operated, as and when desired. The safety switch 30, however, is arranged to be operated automatically by the pay-out mechanism, in the event the wire becomes unduly snarled or tangled, in process of being fed to the drawing die. To this end, and as shown I -more particularly in Fig. 3, the pedestal 9, which supports the bell frame I throughthe intermediary of post 8, is mounted so that it may be tilted about a pivot point 38,'the mounting being off-center and such that the pedestal .normally tilts down at its rear end 39, and thereby rests upon one end of a pivotally supported arm 40, the other end of which carries the movable arm of and reposition them accurately with respect to each other, to pr'eyent tangling during the unwinding operation. It has been found that a pay-off mechanism operating in accordance with the present invention will functionsatisfactorily at speeds four or five times or more higher than heretofore, and without requiring the preliminary step of opening up and carefully positioning the convolutions of the coil to be unwound, which heretofore has been a tediousand time-consuming job. Also snarling, snagging or overrunning ofthe wire leaving the coil, occurs much less frequently, resulting in substantially increased production. a

The coil-supporting frame may be readily re- 9 moved from operating position when desired, and another coil to be unwound slid into position on the frame I. A construction of the above'character is adaptable to continuous pay-off opera- 'tions where the rear end of one coil is buttwelded to the front end of anothercoil (the latter being mounted on another frame like I placed beside the first) so that operation can proceed without interruption after one coil is completely unwound by continuing to pay off from'the sec ond coil. I Weclaim: i 1. A pay-off mechanism of the character described including a coil supporting frame having a portion receivable within a coil of wire or the, like to be unwound, mechanism for continuously pulling the wire or the like in a direction endwise of said frame, guiding means for normally producing a revolving outwardly whipping motion of I the wire or the like in passing from said frame to said pulling mechanism, a tiltable platform for supporting said frame, and'means operable upon abnormal tilting movement of said platthe automatic safety switch 30, thus maintainswitch arm lever 40, whereby the switch opens and stops the motor in the manner above ex:

plained. In order to bring the motor to rest abruptly, a dynamic brake 4| is provided around the motor armature, the circuit for which is closed through to the motor armature, through a back contact 42 of switch 3|.

The motor control circuit contains the usual protective devices against overload currentsjline' failures, also starting equipment, etc.', but these have been omitted for the sake of simplicity, as constituting standard equipment forming no part of the present invention.

Heretofore, the speed at which it was practical to pay-out the wire from a coil, such as the abovedescribed coil 2, has been a bottleneck, so to speak, in respectto the speed at which wiredrawing or like operations of the above-described character could be performed, speeds of about 300-350 ft. per minute being impractical. Also. it was necessary to open up the convolutions of the coilto be unwound by elongating the coil so as to separate adjacent convolutions somewhat form in a direction toward said pulling mechanism forthrowing the latter out of action.

' 2. A pay-off mechanism of thecharacter .described including a'unitary coilsupporting frame having an intermediate portion receivable within a coil of wi're or the like to be unwound-means the wire or the like in passing from said frame.

adjacent one end of said supporting frame for detachably holding the' latter in operative position, a substantially circular guide member adjacent the opposite end of said frame and of larger diameter than the intermediate'portion thereof, mechanism. for continuously pulling the wire or the like endwise off said frame in the direction of said guide member, a tiltable plat-- I for detachably supporting said frame adjacent its smaller end, and means including said platform for throwing said pulling mechanism out of action upon the occurrence of abnormal tension in MORRIS F. WILLIAMS.,

' SEYMOUR B. GALLT.

REFERENCES orrEn The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

' UNITED s'rA'rEs' PATENTS Number Name Date 986,020 Mills Mar. '7, 1911 1,682,213 Chapman Aug.j28,' 1928 I I 1,883,039 Snyder Oct. 18,1932 2,102,610 Blashill Dec. .21, 1937 2,349,873 

